Wednesday, 21 April 2010

I haven't been able to play that much lately, mostly because of IRL things. So, I think this is an excellent opportunity for me to address a little thing that has had me thinking for a while.

Tam recently wrote a post on how some DPS can be utter utter, utter utter sh-, uhm, I mean a slight pain in the neck sometimes. I don't think there are any healers out there that did not have to deal with the sort of situations he has to deal with. What I like about his post, though, is that it clearly shows he has had enough and behaves more assertive in groups. He does not stay to grief or to be a weight the rest of the group has to carry around, he simply states what his problem is, and if it is not resolved, he quits. Whenever I read this type of posts I am in awe of who wrote them, and I decide it's time I step up in my own groups as well. But why is it that I have to read posts about it to make up my mind about behaving like a normal human being in the first place?

The Bossy Pally already addressed part of the issue. She points out she puts up with some behaviour because she doesn't want to be perceived as a whiny overly sensitive girl. When I read it, I agreed with her completely. In situations like the one she describes, her explanation does fit. But I tried to look at the wider scope. Why do we put up with any bad behaviour at all? We wouldn't do it in our actual lives. If we get harassed and yelled at by complete strangers, we call the police or yell back at them. Why do we meekly do as they say online?

At first, I pointed at The Panties In A Wad (tm) argument to explain why I put up with people. Then, however, something strange happened. (As a complete coincidence, might I point out. I do not think my thoughts and the following are linked in a causal manner.) Pocky started to get some heat in heroics. He admitted to me that he had not been on the top of his game, and he had been making some mistakes, but for me that is besides the point. He is the tank. If DPS pulls before he has aggro, or before he is anywhere close to where the DPS is pulling, they made a mistake, not him. If they then get transformed into bloody splatters on the floor, it is not the tank's fault either. Yes, he has ways to pull aggro back onto him, but they're not supposed to be part of his standard routine. He has them for very bad situations only. That is made quite clear by the CD Blizzard put on those skills. However, he was being treated like he was a bad tank, just because he had an off-few-days and only did an average job. (Otherwise, I am really happy to inform you, he is an excellent tank. Rocks my socks, seriously.)

Pocky should not be worried about having His Panties In A Wad (tm), because, quite simply, he is a man. Still, he follows the morons and idiots around to make sure he pulls everything off them, even when the good players in the group clearly need a break (mana or otherwise).

I will unveil my theory in a moment, but first I would like a small amount of your time and take you back on memory lane. From the earliest moments in our lives, (if all is well) we have had a mother to take care of us. Those first few years we would have done anything for her. She is the light of our lives. But then, that gradually changes, and sometimes she even becomes the bane of our existence. Still, we do everything she asks of us in the exact way she likes it to be done. Why? Because she guilt trips us into it. Remember the disappointed look? The slight raise of the eyebrows and the twinge right next to her mouth? The hitch in her voice that tells you you're upsetting her (and she will make your life miserable if you do!)? (Ok, maybe I'm taking this a bit too far, I'm sure you get the point.)

That is why we are vulnerable to those evil DPS'ers. Something drives us to please these people, to be praised about the job we're doing. And so we all shut up and nod when they're behaving like the bags of sh-, air, they are.

The bad news is that they won't stop after a reasonable argument, and we will be the ones feeling bad about it.

The good news is that it is perfectly reversible. Because, unlike our mums, these people have absolutely no hold over us. We are not their children. And, even more perfectly, they probably have the same training from their mothers. So, my brethren, I cry for justice in the form of the Mummy Treatment. Imagine all of the extremely annoyingly effective things that your mother has ever said to you, from the time she pulled out the baby pictures in front of your friends to the time she barged into your room/house during a crucial bossfight, and then slam them down on those prepubescent pottymouths. They will not know what hit them. Don't get angry, get disappointed!

I would also like to use this opportunity to call for some more tank-loving. All of you healers out there, remember to hug a tank today. They need the TLC just as much as you do. And maybe you can gang up on the baddies, that way?

~Ari

PS: Please note that I refer to -bad- DPS in this post. The stress is on bad, not on DPS (not all DPS is bad). I'm well aware they come in all shapes and sizes, these players. There are healers and tanks like it too. I am not easily exposed to them because I usually know my tank will be Pocky. (Unless I'm on alts.) However, the Mummy Treatment will be just as effective on them, so don't hesitate to apply it.

Saturday, 10 April 2010

Today, I set foot in a raid for the very first time. (We only did the first boss of Naxx, but who cares, it was a raid, damnit!) The feeling I got from is was... something quite extraordinary.

I felt like the cupcake that discovers icing. A penguin that learns how to fly and asks itself wuh-tuh-fuh it's been doing all its life on the ground. A blind person that... ok no, that's going a bit too far. You get the point.

It was awesome.

I do have to include that there were a number of things that could have made the result Less Awesome. For example, the other healer was a paladin that apparently had never heard of the term 'tank healing'. I know. Where do I find these people? (Or rather, where does my dear raid leader find these people...) Seriously though. I asked in /raid who the other healer was, he stepped up, and I checked if he wanted to tank heal. Since, you know, he's a pally and I'm a holy priest. Things should be fairly obvious in role division, right? Ahhhh, no. First, he told me his gear wasn't good enough to tank.

"I mean, are you going to heal the tank?" was my reply.

He linked to his Beacon of Light and informed me he'd obviously be healing the tank, as he'd be healing everyone.

At this point, I blanched and turned to Pocky. (note: he was the raid tank)

I had no idea about the difficulty level of this raid, and was a tad worried our paladin friend hadn't actually touched a healing spell with a ten foot pole.

It turned out my worries were unfounded. It was a proverbial cakewalk. Our DPS was made of Absolute Awesomeness, and both tanks did a wonderfull job as well.

And I learned why holy priests are called 'raid healers'. For the few AoE's that I had to hit, I was shocked and amazed at how easily I topped off our raid. I genuinely felt like this was what I was designed to do. (Duh, Ari, this *is* what blizzard designed you for, dunce!)

-- Anyway, like I said, it was an incredibly easy raid, so it's probably not this great in others, but a girl can dream. *happy sigh*

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

I have been so bad at posting, I know. It's a downright shame. How can I call myself a respected blogger? *cough*

There are, of course, a multitude of reasons for my lack of posts, but I shall not bore you with them. Instead, here is some filler about what I've been up to.

I've been grinding my bum off trying to get that gear list together on my priest. Most of it drops from - three guesses - PoS and HoR. I have to put up with all kinds of badmouthing on the Forgemaster, and for what? I haven't had a single drop from that dungeon since I started. (I believe the words 'holy hell' apply there.) So, to stop myself from personally hunting down the DPS that won't clear their stacks, Pocky and I mostly run randoms to cool my moods. It eats time. (Oh, and I found a better pair of shoulders than in the original plan, I'll post about them soon.)

My Forgemaster-induced priest burnout led me to start playing my cute little lowbies some more. I finally got my shammy up to 15 so I can pug with her. Believe it or not, I was actually looking forward to it. Huge mistake. For some reason, I get grouped with assholes. I'm lucky if they even know enough English to understand what 'mana break' means. At one point, I was stuck with a trigger happy paladin as a tank. I couldn't figure out what was wrong untill he stopped for two seconds and I could inspect his gear. He was wearing cloth. Really. It looked suspiciously like the warlock starter dress too. No wonder he ran like the wind, without all that plate to lug around. Shortly after my discovery, he got votekicked. Shockingly. Good thing some decent stuff dropped for me. Hah.

For all you Pocky fans out there, he was having a blast doing battlegrounds in the meanwhile. (I swear I didn't just neglect him, see? He was poking baddies all this time!)

I am very sorry about not posting anything for this long. Don't worry though, I have enough ideas for posts to keep this up. It's not dead yet.